They have absorbed the Republican party. They are, for all practical purposes, the Republican party. They make its nominations; they shape its measures, they preserve its policy. Individual dissenters who preserve the original traditions of American free government there are, but their voices are not heard; they are generally paralyzed; they are always powerless. Hitherto no Democratic minority has been formed capable of exercising any practical power. No internal remedy can come for a disease which has incorporated itself with everything vital in the political body. It is too late to cut out the cancer without killing the patient. "In the nature of the case, the remedy can come only from an opposition which shall grow strong enough to turn out the present existing administration and take its place. In such an opposition the Democratic masses must contribute a large element. They embrace three and a half or four millions of votes, and are of themselves within five per cent. of a majority. They contain nearly all the thinkers, speakers and writers, all the trained statesmen who adhere to the traditions of Jefferson; and while individual members have been not unstained with the errors of the times, the body, as a whole, is sound; and a majority is sure to declare for the ancient faith of Jefferson and Franklin and George Clinton and Samuel and John Hancock. "In the part I have borne in the administration of the Democratic party of the State of New York--now closed--I have aimed at three things: "1. To lead on public opinion in favor of the original ideas of the Jeffersonian democracy and in support of such current measures as secured valuable reforms. "2. To terminate a degrading strife in which they enlisted themselves, in comparing the leprous spots on their respective sides, and practically declared that the word only was wanting to incite an honorable emulation in which they should seek and apply effectual remedies and the public mind stimulated to reform. "3. To prepare the Democratic masses to act their part in a general movement for reform in all the governmental institutions of the country. (_Cætera desunt._) TILDEN TO JOHN KELLY "GENEVA, IN SWITZERLAND, _Sept. 6th, 1873_. "MY DEAR SIR,--As I shall not be able to return home in season to take part in the political canvass of this autumn, I desire you to say for me to the State convention that I decline a re-election as member-at-large of the State committee and as its chairman.